Chanel and Guerlain once used this beaver secretion, here’s why it disappeared

Some premium fragrances, including Chanel and Guerlain Shalimar, have historically used castoreum, a beaver secretion that sits in the castor sacs located near the tail, according to Vinniit Aroraa, an Indian perfumer and founder of RAD LVNG.

Beavers use castoreum along with urine to mark their territory, and the substance smells leathery, smoky and sharp, with birch tar notes. When blended into a fragrance formula, however, it softens and becomes sensual. Natural castoreum required killing the animal, which is a big part of why it has quietly disappeared from modern formulas.

Aroraa explains that perfumers have spent centuries chasing the worst smells on earth because, diluted and blended just right, they turn into the very thing that makes people smell unforgettable, in the best way. Castoreum is one of four such ingredients, alongside musk, ambergris and oud, that form the backbone of some of the world’s most expensive fragrances.

Nearly all fragrance ingredients are synthetic today, as chemists have spent decades reverse-engineering these natural scents in a lab, molecule by molecule, with the results now sitting in almost every bottle on the shelf.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by MuslimDon